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Buzz Worthy News 4th June 2012

Buzz Worthy News

In This week’s Buzz Worthy News: Oprah Winfrey’s Book Club is back, The winner of the Orange Prize is announced, Stephenie Meyer speaks out about E.L.James, another wonderful author passes away and scandalous scandals occur. Read ‘em and weep!

Buzz Worthy News is Cuddlebuggery’s weekly Monday feature focusing on the weekly news and book world gossip. Check back on Fridays for our Hot New Titles posts covering the latest YA releases and hottest cover reveals.

Book World News

The prayers of literally millions of people have been answered. Oprah is reopening her book club after a two year hiatus presumably so that my aunt can buy me more books that I am never going to read. The first book she will be featuring, and will inevitably wind up on my bookshelf whether I like it or not, is Wild by Cheryl Strayed.

“I love this book,” Ms. Winfrey writes in the July issue of O, The Oprah Magazine, which will highlight the new book club on its cover and feature an interview with Ms. Strayed. “I want to shout it from the mountaintop. I want to shout it from the Web. In fact, I love this book so much and want to talk about it so much, I knew I had to reinvent my book club.”

The sticker is back and digital editions of her book club books will include margin notes by Winfrey so that readers can see which highlighted parts are her favourite.

Orange prize goes to Madeline Miller for her debut book, The Song of Achilles. This may immeasurably lower me in everyone’s opinion forever, but I didn’t even know this award existed – but now I’m SO into it and will be reading this book from the American Classic’s teacher cum novelist.

The Orange Prize for other dunces like me: “Launched in 1996, the prize celebrates excellence, originality and accessibility in women’s writing from throughout the world. The winner receives a cheque for £30,000 and a limited edition bronze known as a ‘Bessie’, created by the artist Grizel Niven.” -Orangeprize.co.uk

Miller on her winning: “Miller — who spent 10 years writing the book while working as a Greek and Latin teacher —said she was “overwhelmed” and “humble” by the £30,000 (nearly $48,000 Cdn) prize.”

Stephenie Meyer, whilst on the set for The Host, speaks out about E.L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy. Everyone hoping for a fight with hair-pulling and enraged shrieks of, “Pay me my royalties! Pay me my royalties!” will be sadly disappointed. Also that’s kind of sexist. Stephenie gave her blessing to James’ trilogy saying:

“I haven’t read it. I mean, that’s really not my genre, not my thing,” she said with a laugh. “I’ve heard about it; I haven’t really gotten into it that much. Good on her — she’s doing well. That’s great!”

Because nobody was going to believe she wasn’t going to be even a little mean about it, they followed up by prodding that without Twilight, the Fifty Shades Trilogy wouldn’t exist.

“It might not exist in the exact form that it’s in,” Meyer said. “Obviously, [James] had a story in her, and so it would’ve come out in some other way.”

Ellen Levine, children’s fiction and non-fiction author sadly passed away this week at the age of 73 and before Steph and I could reach our lifelong goal of hugging her.

She was a staunch social justice activist, having written many novels and appearing in CBS television documentaries. Her publisher released the following:

“Henry’s Freedom Box (a Caldecott Honor) is the true story of a slave who mailed himself to freedom; Darkness Over Denmark details the rescue of Jews by the Danes in World War II; A Fence Away from Freedom details the internment of Japanese Americans in the 1940s; Freedom’s Children, a profile of young black civil rights activists in the 1960s, was termed ‘nothing short of wonderful’ in a New York Times review; I Hate English, about a Chinese girl struggling to learn English, has become a resource for ESL teachers.”

Camp NaNo is in full swing, and for all those interested – well… you’re four days late but you can still catch up or do the next one in August!

Based on November’s National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), Camp NaNoWriMo provides the online support, tracking tools, and hard deadline to help you write the rough draft of your novel in a month… other than November!

Available for iOS, Android and the mobile web, the app includes an exhibitor list and a floor plan, as well as schedules for author events, signings and panel discussions. If you are in the BEA Digital Zone but you need to find your way to a keynote meeting room, you can use the app to map your location and give you directions. It’s like Google Maps for BEA.

You can also use the app to take notes about the show. There is also a handy “My Show” feature to save all of the events that you would like to attend into a personalized agenda.

If you download and login to the app by June 5th, you’ll be entered into a drawing for an iPad. Follow this link for details.

Scandalous Scandals

This photo was taken from Fantasy Book Critic. I'm pretty certain he's added a fake sparkle to his ring. I'm not even going to ask why.

M.R.Mathias did some more rounds this week after his meltdown on Fantasy Fiction. This time attacking random reviewers for not believing him here and here.

For those too lazy to click the links:

You know who are Nazis? Nazis. Random forum moderators fall into that category less often than one would think. He goes on to claim he has written a short story about Fantasy Fiction titled King of Fools. Classy. After another couple of inflammatory posts he comes out with this one:

Feel free to read the links provided and make up your own minds. Just know that you will be wrong and will deserve to be attacked by Mathias if you express such an opinion. Any attempt to ask him to go away may or may not make you a Nazi.

It’s important to reiterate that it was not HarperTEEN author of The Selection, Keira Cass who attacked Wendy as some people mistakenly believed. It was a self-published author unconnected to the drama who singled out and attacked Wendy in a post where she gave explicit personal details about Wendy’s real identity.

Some people commented that these details could be found through a Google search, which is true. However:

1) They weren’t common knowledge

2) Wendy had not given this author permission to repost her full name and personal information

3) Doing so in a post attacking Wendy is an implied threat to her safety and privacy

4) Details about many people could easily be looked up in order to discover where they live. Many people don’t realize how easy they are to find with a simple Google search or by even looking up their IP. This doesn’t make it okay to post all the information you gather in one place to threaten someone.

Some brilliant blog posts came out of this debacle as outrage spread across the community.

If you’re REALLY a ridiculous child, you start spreading gossip about him. You tell everyone you know that Brett McSingleguy is a total dickhead, that he’s sexist and stupid, that he thinks he’s so great. Maybe you start following him around and telling women he meets that he’s scum. Maybe you start leaving nasty notes on his Facebook page, or sending emails to his boss accusing him of all manner of things. Maybe you start stalking him. Maybe when he calls the cops on you, you get even angrier.

In other words, maybe you are a fucking psycho. Maybe you should grow the fuck up. Maybe you should get a fucking life. Maybe you should leave this poor man, whose only crime was to not like you, alone.

People are actually defending that Wendy debacle? Really? I thought it’d be one of those things everyone would agree on!

And enough with the Nazi analogies – if someone is not systematically trying to destroy vulnerable people en mass, preferably while starting a massive world conflict, they’re not a Nazi. Godwin folks, Godwin.

Tracy

Comment
I haven’t read any of Stephanie Meyer’s books but I have to say I admire the way she has been acting with all of the Fifty shades stuff. Classy. That Mathias person though seems kind of psycho to me. And Vanity writer is bananas!!Tracy recently posted…Check here to Subscribe to notifications for new posts

Mireya

Re. Stephanie Meyer – I am sure all that is being said AFTER the publishing company’s attorneys scoured 50 whatevers to make sure that they couldn’t go after it for breaking some copyright of some sort, and confirmed that, indeed, nothing can be done against 50 whatevers. Notice the time it took for any sort of reaction to make it through the media. Sorry, I can’t help being jaded. Of course, I may be wrong… I was also hoping for some kind of drama as I really dislike the sort of big ass the author of 50 whatevers has made of herself thanks to her making public what she really thinks of the readers that contributed to make her a millionaire. Me not spending a dime on her books… ever. At least Meyer has class even when I don’t like her books.

Oh, Oprah. The last book of yours I read made me want to kill myself. Please stop foisting these depressing tomes on people.

Seriously, though. I think Pillars of the Earth and Poisonwood Bible are the only books she’s read that I liked and I found them on my own.

Still reeling over that debacle involving Wendy. It’s totally uncalled for. Even as a more “public” figure, using my real name on the internet, I still value my privacy. I choose to keep my facebook and my children and my husband to myself. I rarely mention them, and NEVER use their real names. I also try to be careful what I post about myself so that they will never have cause to feel embarrassed by anything I say. It’s just not cool to do something like that to someone. Appalling lack of manners.Kate C. recently posted…Look, a Shiny Distraction!

Man, I have to give some serious kudos to Stephanie Meyer. I mean, if I knew someone was making millions from an erotic fanfiction of my work, I deeply suspect I wouldn’t be anywhere near as polite. So, while it may not be as interesting as a cat fight, brava to her.

Camp NaNoWriMo makes me ridiculously sad, because I so, so wanted to join, but when I seriously considered it, I saw the schoolwork piled by my desk, staring me down, and I knew it wouldn’t be possible.

Regarding M.R. Mathias, I can’t even take him seriously enough to be really offended by his behavior. He’s just so ludicrous that it’s laughable.

Finally, with the Wendy situation: I agree with everything you and the kickass Stacia Kane said, and that picture is frightening accurate.Lexie B. recently posted…Wanderlove

Reading through the comments at Vanity’s blog has got to be the creepiest thing ever – post after post of “not so anonymous” quoting various comments in discussions about the drama, only one or two minutes after one another. It’s like that Buffy forum where all the posts are by the same person o.O *backs away slowly*Cyna recently posted…067 – Token of Darkness by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

I love these posts. That BEA app is crazy! They’re very organized lol. Is it like the marauders map with little dots for where the authors and bloggers are haha. I wonder if that’s how Stephanie Meyer really feels or if she’s just good with publicity. lolMelissa @ Harley Bear Book Blog recently posted…Armchair BEA: Introduction Interview

Stephenie Meyer has class. Of course, I’m sure she’d not exactly weeping in to her millions in book advances, book royalties, film royalties, and the knowledge that whatever she writes will be snapped up by anyone regardless if the pages are filled with “DERP DERP DERP”.

“Wendy had not given this author per­mis­sion to repost her full name and per­sonal information”

Uh huh and how many times have you gotten permission from the authors you have profiled on your blog and sent your band of merry bullies after? Oh, that’s right! ZERO! You have never gotten their permission to harass and humiliate them. So, fuck that, you hypocritical bitch!

Rebecca

Hearing stories like Wendy’s truly frustrates me, especially in a culture with a right to free speech! What is it that makes certain people believe that:
everyone should love their work
If someone, for some bizarre reason, does not like their work they should have to keep their opinion to themselves?
Do they not realize that the reason their work is sent out to reviewers is to get feedback on what they’ve written? That they could use negative feedback as constructive criticism in order to improve their future work? That acting out against negative feedback only draws attention to said negative feedback and may stop potential readers from reading their work, either because of the review or because of their own petty actions?
As a voracious reader of both books and book blogs I would be suspicious of a reviewer who only wrote positive reviews – are they an idiot who doesn’t know their own mind? Are they paid/reimbursed by the publisher? Are they only out to make a name for themselves? Trying to get a job?
Everyone will read books they love and everyone will read books they hate. There will always be books that fit somewhere between the two extremes. There will also be books that you will struggle to finish, books you can’t put down and books where you just can’t force yourself to plod through to the end. When I read a review, I want to know what impact the book had on the reviewer as a way of deciding if I should fork over my hard earned cash for a few hours of escapism.
.Rebecca recently posted…Check here to Subscribe to notifications for new posts

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